The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology announced today in Madalena that the Government of the Azores will move forward this year with the construction of six fishing gear houses and a collection centre in São Roque do Pico Fisheries Centre, stressing that this "an old claim of Pico fishers."
 
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with the Pico Traditional Fishing Shipowners Association, Gui Menezes also added that, at the suggestion of the island's vessel owners, the project for the works in Madalena Fisheries Centre "is being reformulated." In this regard, he added that this is one of the investments to be made under the Sea 2020 Operational Programme.
 
The Regional Secretary, who considered this meeting with Pico shipowners as "very useful," defended the importance of "going to the ground, seeing the reality of situations and collecting the suggestions and needs" of the sector.
 
Questioned by journalists about the possibility of a bad year in tuna fishing, Gui Menezes stated that "tuna catches have not gone so badly for tuna seiners fishing in Madeira. This year, 1,450 tonnes of Bigeye tuna have already been caught, while only 685 tonnes were caught in the same period of time in 2016.
 
Gui Menezes said he had "hopes that tuna will appear" in regional waters, mentioning that about seven tonnes were caught Thursday," which may be a good sign."
 
The Secretary for Fisheries also stated that tuna shortage is probably related to "environmental issues and overfishing in tropical areas as well as to the widespread use of fish aggregating devices (FADs)."
 
"Tuna species are managed internationally and it takes a lot to negotiate," the government official said, noting that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has established a working group to study the effect of FADs, but this study "will still take some time."
 
The Regional Secretary assured that "the Government of the Azores has alerted the National Government for the importance of defending the positions taken by the Azores and Madeira with all relevant bodies."
 
"The number of FADs has to be reduced and we have to study their effect on tuna populations," Gui Menezes said, adding that tuna fishing in the Azores, through the use of pole-and-line gear is "is more sustainable and environmentally friendly."
 
In this meeting with the Pico Traditional Fishing Shipowners Association, the Regional Secretary also stressed that the Government is preparing, in partnership with the University of the Azores, a monitoring programme for coastal resources, such as the case of limpets; the latter a very important resource to this island.
 
Gui Menezes also mentioned that the applications of Madalena fishers affected by the storm of February 27 to be supported by the Azorean Government under a special support scheme approved by the Council of the Government in April are currently under analysis.